February 26 - Lots of Ward Trust

Dear Family,

First of all, business. I changed my picture settings so you should be able to see those now. They are pretty old now, so idk. Second, I still do not have a charge cord for my camera so idk what's going on there. Last of all, keep it real.

Okay, now for the week. Tuesday, we had another English class which was pretty cool. I really don't remember it all that much. Wednesday was pretty cool too. We met a cool family that actually ended up being sort of turds but that is a story for Saturday. Then I had missionary coordination meeting that night. We are really focusing on one person this week, trying to help them progress to baptism. Then Thursday came and that was a pretty good day. That morning we did some service for a small Mexican lady that talks really fast and she gave us smoothies that were kinda good. We did it with a recent convert named Jose, who has been in an out of prison for 7 years, which if I told you that you would probably think that he was buff and pretty scary which is actually very opposite of what Jose really is, but we love him. Then we tried to visit the many Marias that we have as investigators and none of them were home. We had another English class that night which was pretty good. We taught the alphabet and went over the "I am a child of God" the hymn. The next day was Friday and we taught some investigators with interesting stories and didn't get around to teaching that one family I talked about cause we went by too late. The next day was Saturday and we went to teach the family and the dad yelled at us for like 5 minutes in Spanish then told us he was going to stay Catholic until he died. Sorta upsetting. We are planning on giving him cupcakes today or tomorrow. That night we went to stake conference with two recent converts which was really cool because it talked all about missionary work and why seniors should serve a mission. I was thinking about my great Grandparents Murray the whole time. Then the next day we had new stake conference which we watched in Spanish and it was sort of a weird theme. It was women of faith so that was interesting because I haven't really had that before. The translation sucked though, so it wasn't great. After that we visited a women in the hospital with a member and it was a super cool experience. We got to see the power of prayer first hand. Today we have a movie night for family home evening and I am pumped!

I love each and every one of you. I invite all of you to be better member missionaries this week. Try going out with the missionaries in your ward or sharing your testimony with those around you in every day life. I cannot begin to explain how much things like that help the missionaries find prepared people and I wish ever day that I would have been a better member missionary in my ward. 

Love,

Elder Murray

February 19th - Transfers: The Aftermath

Dear Beloved Family,

Another great week has flown by here in the CFM and I am doing well. Okay, first off business. I received no letters or packages this week so nothing to report. I still don't have a charger for my camera so that is a bummer. Other than that there hasn't been much to report, business wise, and I am doing well. Oh one more thing! I was way disappointed with the emails this week. I got only 3 from Mom, Dad and Grandma. Jacob has an excuse so he is good but the rest of my friends and family need to step it up, haha.

This week has been really crazy to be honest. The start of the week was really rough. I was super worried about having to do everything that we had to do here. Elder Jones was the only one who spoke really great Spanish out of the three of us and he left. Me and Elder Lilly had to pick up the entire sisters area as well as our own. We also got brand new Zone Leaders here so they didn't really know what they were doing either. This meant there was a whole lot of work to do. We
probably biked this week more than I have any week yet and we visited so many people that we either didn't know or lived further away. On Tuesday we had a ward activity which was really pretty funny because Mexicans eat a lot of food so it was all gone like way fast and then they have this like kind of sway dance thing that they do to their loud latino music. I so wished I could get on the dance floor and show them how it is done but you can't as a missionary so I watched the
Mexicans do their swaying and weird dancing with puzzlement.

We taught another English class as well. This one was pretty weird. I don't think we have had a single person that has come to more than like one English class in a row, which is lame, so we just keep teaching the same things over and over.

The rest of the week really wasn't super exciting and I don't have all that much to report. We were mostly just getting the hang of all this new work we have to do. We found some really cool new investigators this week. I keep on doing my best to convert souls to the Lord and help them make their first covenant with the Him.

Everything we had built up fell crashing down this Sunday, when we got like 3 texts about people who really didn't want to be taught anymore, or that we can't help someone who doesn't want to be helped or just didn't want to go to church or would rather go to this market thing on Sunday's called a ramate which is like the worst excuse ever. This Sunday was really lame. I am finding that missionary work is very hard here in Madera for several reasons. We will just continue to work and rely on the help of the Lord. Everyone keep up the good work back home and don't forget about me I pray for y'all like 5 times a day.

Love,
Elder Murray (the tallest elder in the California Fresno Mission)

February 12th - Transfer #1

Dear Family,

This week has been pretty crazy but I'll get to that in a second. First, I have received the Valentines Day package and it is almost already gone and it isn't even Valentine's Day. I guess that is what happens when you have three Elders in a mini apartment with hardly any food. I love it though, thanks so much. Here is the thing, every night at dinner you have to eat a ton because Mexican women love making food and beans, rice and tortillas are filling. I also did not have any bike crashes this week which is a miracle.

Alright so Monday, I wrote and we played some games. It was good, That night, one of our members sort of had an emergency so we spent most of the night helping him out. Member trust is key.

Tuesday was a pretty regular day. We taught the English class that night and we actually had an okay turn out with some pretty hilarious Mexicans. I cannot begin to describe how funny it is to hear them try and speak English, but I guess that is how I sound when I speak Spanish.

Wednesday we had an exchange with our zone leaders and we met a crazy guy. He was yelling about how he was poor and he had no car or money or anything and he was literally bawling, crying so hard and yelling four letters and spelling out Dios which is god in Spanish. Then, all the sudden, he wiped his tears off of his face, rubbed them in the grass and started snapping. As he was snapping and dancing around he said "Lets' have a peace party!" and then repeated "peace party" over and over. Our zone leader said "let"s not do that right now" and he said "no we are doing it." So we gave him a picture of Jesus and walked away. Keep in mind this whole experience was in Spanish. Madera is pretty crazy there are a lot of hobos, guns, and Mexicans.

Thursday was a pretty lame day. I got a flat tire so we spent most of the day fixing it, Then we had zero people keep their appointments that night which is really sad.

Friday came and went and I really don't remember all that much from that day.

Saturday was another interesting day because this time Elder Jones got a flat tire and we spent some time fixing that. Then that night was transfer calls which was crazy. My world is being rocked. Elder Jones is going to be the district leader somewhere else now. Both of our zone leaders either got transferred out or are going home so we get two new zone leaders and they decided to completely remove the sisters from our ward. Also Elder Passey is leaving and his companion is getting a new trainee so at least I won't be the greenest missionary here anymore. Thank goodness my other companion is staying to finish my training.

Sunday was cool we had some less active families we have been working with come to church and it really was awesome.

Alright family, that is about all I have for this week. I sorta formatted my letter different but idk, I doubt I'll do this every time, I love the work here and sometimes things are hard and people don't want to talk to you or you get bike troubles but no matter what happens I know that this is the Lord's work and that the gospel truly does bless families. Last week we found a woman and we have been teaching her a lot about the atonement of Jesus Christ and how it really is an infinite blessing. She says it will be so hard to come back to church that she has done too many things to go back and that she copes with having children and family problems, and with smoking and alcohol. This is very sad but no matter what you have done in the past, if you have any desire to be clean to truly use the atonement then your sins are forgiven you. It has already been paid, we only need to reach out and allow it to change us.

Love Always,
Elder Murray

February 5th - Locked in a Garage, $40 of Lysol, and Our First English Class

Dear Family,

It sounds like times back home are busy, but great. To start out, I have kept up my streak of one bike crash a week. This one was probably the funniest one yet. My companion was riding in front of me and moved out of the way at the last second and I looked down and saw a fire hydrant I knew there was no way I was gonna miss it so I said "Oh fetch" out loud and ran right into it, which sent me sailing over the top. I landed in the grass this time, so I stood up and just started laughing so hard! I wasn't really hurt at all, haha. For all the business stuff this week, I received two packages. One had a sweater from my own mom and that was good because my other sweater was ripped beyond repair in my last bike crash, which Lucio Vasquez told me his mom couldn't fix. The other package I received was like a whole ton of chips but I could not find anything on there that said who it was from. I think it was Grandma Gentry because she mentioned she had sent a package with no information on it. So to both of you, thank you so so much!! I love getting packages. It makes me feel the love.

Now for the week, to start off we had a district meeting on Monday last week, and another one this week. The one last week was about extending commitments which is great. Tuesday was a great day too. The highlight of that day was the English class we started here in Madera, which didn't really have a good turn out, but one family showed up and it was so fun to teach the Mexicans English, haha. Another highlight from Tuesday was that we went to this family's house for dinner. He was one of the heads of all the fields and they were rich, so we rode in a very nice truck and got to see his cool house. On Wednesday, the highlight of the day was towards the end of the night. Since we are in a tri-companionship, we get to do a lot of cool stuff with splits. I went with one of the Zone leaders while we were at MCM meeting, and I got to go out of my comfort zone and teach someone when I had no idea who they were, haha. Thursday was pretty boring and not much happened out of the ordinary so we will skip that day. Then Friday we didn't get to do a ton because one of my companions felt sick so I drew some stuff and then we got to go back to work that night around dinner. On Saturday, the best thing we did was go to a birthday party for a lady that we were teaching. I ate some great tacos and a pepper of some sort that was mega hot. The good part was when we went to leave the gate, their garage was locked and they couldn't find the keys so we waited about 20 mins while the Dad came back from getting cake. Sunday was sad, because a whole bunch of people promised us they would be at church and I was expecting a great turn out and then we had zero people actually come. The other crazy thing we had to do was buy our super old neighbor $40 of Lysol so she could spray the mildew outside our apartments. She ended up giving us half so we have way more Lysol then we could ever need now. That is also where I crashed my bike, right outside of the Walmart. I am afraid things are starting to heat up here and this week is supposed to be 70's so I don't think I'll need any more sweaters until next winter.

It is weird that it was the super bowl this Sunday I didn't really know or care until like a week before and even then I still don't really care. The Eagles are Elder Jones' favorite team though, so we are all happy for him. We told him they will probably never win a super bowl again so he missed the only time they would. I see the Lord's hand in my life so often that I don't think I could even tell you everything or remember them. Just know that Heavenly Father looks out for His missionaries and that He won't let us come to any harm. Half the things I see every day are Him working through us to help someone else, like the crying guy we met on the street that we gave a Book of Mormon to, or Brant from Fresno who just showed up in Madera one day and happened to go down the street we were on, or the countless people we meet in the street that tell us we give them hope. There are also times when people are crazy and reject you alot or refuse a picture of Jesus because he isn't white he is black - we actually had someone say that this week. Despite those crazy times, we have to find the people that are prepared and the people that need this gospel and the wonderful joy and comfort it brings in their lives. I love all of you and am so blessed to have this opportunity to serve the Lord. 

Love,
Elder Murray